


The Fall

by Windfighter



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Gen, Whumptober 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 17:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16707022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windfighter/pseuds/Windfighter
Summary: On Trond's retirement-party two of his old workmates tell Sigrun a little about their first summer in the army.





	The Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Concussion  
> Character: Trond

Trond used to be a happier person. When he was younger. And stupider. Like most people he slowly got grumpier as age caught up with him and the burdens of the world slowly stacked upon his shoulders. At least that's what he'd like to believe. The people who had worked with him had a different story to tell.

”Yeah, he used to be a ray of sun”, Jørgen said. ”Before the accident.”

”The accident?” Sigrun asked.

She had never heard that story before. She grabbed a piece of cake and leaned closer.

”It was magnificent”, Eir said. ”It was a huge bear!”

”Not even a beast, just a regular bear. It was almost as big as Reidar!” Jørgen continued. ”You should have seen it, but that was before you were even planned.”

”Uncle Trond is _so old_!”

”And still alive, he's a tough viking.”

”Tell me about the accident, what happened?!”

Trond glared in their direction. Jørgen and Eir laughed and leaned over the table, lowering their voices.

”We were checking out a report by some scouts”, Jørgen started. ”A giant in a building further up in the mountains. All three of us were pretty fresh recruits back then, Trond was almost 18 when he first joined the military.”

”No!”

”Yes”, Eir laughed. ”We needed all hands on deck back then but he was stuck with his parents trying to make a farm. They got it working eventually.”

”So what happened?”

”We decided to take a shortcut”, Eir scratched her head. ”In hindsight it was pretty stupid, but we were young and wanted to show the commander we had the drive to make it in the army. So, we climed the mountain instead of using the road. It wouldn't have saved us more than half an hour but we were young and stupid and invincible. It wasn't that long of a climb though and it should have been easy.”

”We didn't really think about what we would do if the giant was up on the edge waiting for us. It was day but the forest was thick around those parts. Trond was the quickest one, working on a farm had given him muscles the rest of us lacked.”

”We certainly didn't think there would be a bear waiting”, Eir laughed. ”I was too busy focusing on climbing, but I could hear his scream and then he fell past me. Do you remember his scream, Jørgen?”

Jørgen also laughed, then attempted to imitate it. Another bout of laughter from all three of them and Trond sent another glare towards them. Jørgen smiled towards Trond.

”You can't do anything to us now, old man, you're retired!”

”I still have connections”, Trond answered, ”you just wait.”

”He won't do anything”, Eri whispered, ”we're like family.”

”The scream was fun but what followed next was less so...”

”He was so quiet. We climbed back down again to check on him and to not throw ourselves at whatever had struck him down. At first we thought he was dead.”

”He didn't move, his eyes were closed and he wouldn't respond to us. There was a medic among the hindmost troops though and luckily for us they arrived right when we were starting to freak out. It took him a couple of minutes before he woke up...”

”A couple? It was more like fifteen!” Eri said.

”Oh wow, that can't have been good.”

Sigrun had hit her head a few times but she had never been out longer than half a minute. Eri nodded.

”It wasn't. And when he woke up he had no idea who the rest of us were. Or where we were. It came back to him eventually but in some ways he never quite recovered.”

”Yeah, the medic said it was a really bad concussion and our captain was so angry at us. I had never seen her so furious before, it was terrifying. We were put on cleaning duty for the rest of the season, all four of us!”

”Four?”

”Yeah, there was another recruit with us. She got killed by a troll the next summer...” Jørgen let out a sigh. ”She was supposed to get married when the season was over.”

”At least she got to go to Valhalla”, Sigrun always tried to look at the bright side of death.

”Yeah, now she gets to battle giants every day”, Jørgen agreed.

”So, was it a bear?”

”It was”, Eri said, ”we found tracks of it when we finally got up there.”

”It was also what we managed to puzzle together when Trond was finally able to communicate clearly again.”

”Hrm hrm”, Trond sounded behind them and all three froze and sat up straight again. ”I do not appreciate you gossiping about me. Sigrun, don't listen to their lies, nothing happened that day. I recovered _just fine_. ”

”Except that ever since that day he had to wear glasses”, Eri whispered.

”It was just a coincidence that they noticed how bad my eye-sight was that week. These two have more imagination than they know what to do with.”

”How big was it?” Sigrun asked.

”...What?”

”The bear, was it big? Or was it a kid-bear?”

”There wasn't a bear and I didn't scream”, Trond's cheeks were slightly pink. ”I just lost my grip, it could happen to the best.”

”It was totally a bear”, Jørgen whispered and the three snickered.

Trond glared at them, then turned around again. Sigrun, Jørgen and Eri glanced at each other then burst out in laughter again.

”So”, Sigrun asked when they had stopped laughing, ”was that really what happened? Or is uncle Trond right and you're just making things up?”

Jørgen and Eri looked at each other and shrugged.

”We'll let you decide what to believe”, Eri said and nudged Sigrun's side.

**Author's Note:**

> The bear was probably just as scared by Trond as Trond was by it!  
> Uh... I mean... bear? What bear?


End file.
